Summer Games Done Quick blows away old fund raising record

Summer Games Done Quick raised another record-breaking amount, this time breaching $3 million. That’s nearly 50 percent better than what the speedrunning marathon raised in 2018 for Doctors Without Borders. More significantly, it’s the first time any Games Done Quick event has raised more than $3 million.

Games Done Quick’s organizers announced the milestone early this morning in a news release. As of now, the total is $3,005,788.87, from more than 50,000 donors, but that figure typically changes in day after the event’s end as more donations come in. The figure smashes last year’s $2.1 million raised, which was also a record at the time.

Companion series Awesome Games Done Quick has been around longer and has raised more in the past, but its latest marathon, in January, pulled $2.4 million.

SGDQ ran 139 events from last Sunday to yesterday afternoon. Here, in order of their appearance, are some highlights.

• Streets of Rage (Hardest difficulty) by cestpatou

• Metroid by metroidmcfly

• Contra (low%, two-player) by RottDawg and angrylanks

• Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (any% on PS4)

• Punch-Out!! (arcade version, first loop) by zallard1

• The Legend of Zelda Randomizer (race) between JamEvil and fcoughlin.

• Tetris Effect (Journey Mode on Expert) by HardDrop

• TASbot plays Celeste

• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (any%)

The full, timestamped VOD list (courtesy of r/speedrun) is here, and the official Games Done Quick Youtube channel is still uploading videos from the week here.

The next Games Done Quick event will be Games Done Quick Express at TwitchCon, Sept. 27-29 in San Diego. That mini-marathon will support AbleGamers.